Bulgarian nationalists urge referendum on Turkey’s EU bid
VESSELIN ZHELEV
04/26/2010
A small nationalist party in Bulgaria has started collecting signatures to
call a referendum on Turkey’s bid to join the European Union in an effort to
stop government support for it.
VMRO, which has no seats in parliament, said it aimed to collect the minimum
500,000 signatures that would make a referendum mandatory. Its plan B is to
collect at least 200,000 signatures, which would oblige parliament to
consider the issue but not call a popular vote.
Nationalist sentiment has been on the rise in Bulgaria in recent years.
"Turkey is just not a European country. The vast part of Turkey’s territory
(97 percent) is in Asia," the party said in a statement. "There is no way
for Turkey to become an EU member without Bulgaria’s support and we must
prevent our politicians from supporting Turkey."
"The Turks are invaders in Europe and we, Bulgarians, know this well", the
declaration said, referring to the 500-year Ottoman rule on the Balkans
which ended in Bulgaria in 1878. "Turkey is an Islamic state. The EU was
founded by Christian states. It is based on Christian values."
The document also claimed that Turkey was "ruled by an Islamic party" which
seeks "to resurrect the influence of the Ottoman Empire" and that Turkey
will "drain out" EU funds.
The collection of signatures started in mid-April and is due to end on July
18. The party did not disclose how many people have signed up already.
Bulgaria’s main nationalist party, Ataka, which has 21 of a total of 240
seats in parliament and is more radical than the VMRO in its anti-Turkish
rhetoric, did not react to the initiative.
Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, whose minority government is supported by
Ataka, has put on hold a demand by Ataka to call a referendum on whether to
continue daily 10-minute news casts in Turkish, broadcast by state TV for
the country’s 10 percent ethnic Turkish minority.
Unlike other Balkan countries, Bulgaria kept clear of militant nationalism
and ethnic violence throughout its 20-year post-Communist transition. But
nationalists grew stronger as the country joined the EU because of the
painful reforms the accession required and mounting allegations of
corruption against a Turkish ethnic party, which was a key power broker in
the previous two coalition governments.
Bulgaria has managed to mend its ties with Turkey after Communist-era
reprisals against Bulgaria’s ethnic Turks forced some 300,000 of them flee
to Turkey in an unprecedented exodus in mid-1989.
© 2010 WAZ Media Group & EUobserver.com
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
